{"id":3829,"date":"2022-02-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fishingforcustomers.com\/?p=3829"},"modified":"2025-12-13T11:33:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T18:33:25","slug":"strawberry-jam-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/strawberry-jam-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Second Biggest Mistake in Customer Acquisition \u2013 (the Strawberry Jam Theory)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section admin_label=&#8221;section&#8221;]<br \/>\n\t\t\t[et_pb_row admin_label=&#8221;row&#8221;]<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t[et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243;][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Text&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h2>It Wasn\u2019t Really a Question<\/h2>\n<p>What my new acquaintance actually said was, \u201cI know it takes money to make money, but promoting my business doesn\u2019t feel like investing, and I can\u2019t afford too many more bad rolls of the dice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The implied question was, \u201cWhat should I spend on marketing?\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>What Does it Cost to Acquire a Customer?<\/h2>\n<p>The concept is simple, but the answer isn\u2019t, mainly because it costs less to attract shoppers who are physically close to your business than those farther away.<\/p>\n<p>The easiest way to explain this may be with jam, and toast.<\/p>\n<h2>Pretend Your Marketing Budget is One Tablespoon of Strawberry Jam<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/toast-and-jam.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3841\" src=\"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/toast-and-jam-300x251.jpg\" alt=\"toast and jam\" width=\"300\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/toast-and-jam-300x251.jpg 300w, https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/toast-and-jam.jpg 309w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Spread over half a slice it covers the bread with a thick, generous coating of strawberry goodness that\u2019s evident with every bite.<\/p>\n<p>On Two Slices of Toast it Starts Getting Thin<\/p>\n<p>And if you wanted to spread our delicious strawberry jam over seven and a half slices of toast, well, the result will be disappointing every time.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s just not enough jam for a satisfying coverage of that much toast.<\/p>\n<h2>Strawberry Jam in the Real World<\/h2>\n<p>Whether you\u2019re an esthetician, an attorney, or run a smoke shop; whether you weave custom rugs, or fit custom toupees, the concept works exactly the same way as jam on toast.<\/p>\n<p>Today, let\u2019s consider an HVAC (heating and air) contractor in Rancho Cucamonga, California.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Half a slice of toast in this case would equal all of the homes within half a mile of the shop \u2013 2,132 households.<\/li>\n<li>One slice (one mile) includes 5,002 homes.<\/li>\n<li>At a two mile radius from the shop that number of households jumps to 20,268.<\/li>\n<li>At five miles the number of households has grown to 74,804.<\/li>\n<li>And within a 7.5 mile radius the household total has reached 146,585.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>How Do We Reach All Those Homes?<\/h2>\n<p>We\u2019re going to rely on one of the oldest forms of traditional media: direct mail. We\u2019ll send a postcard to all of the homes around our shop promising heat when it\u2019s cold, cool when it\u2019s hot, and lightning fast emergency service.<\/p>\n<h2>What\u2019s Our Budget?<\/h2>\n<p>For illustration, let\u2019s say our tablespoon of jam would let us deliver postcards to 150,000 homes.<\/p>\n<p>Hey, that\u2019s great news! Everyone gets a postcard\u2026<\/p>\n<h2>\u2026But No One Gets a Real Taste<\/h2>\n<p>One tablespoon of jam spread across seven and a half slices of toast doesn\u2019t provide any flavor. Worse yet, the jam arrived before the bread finished toasting.<\/p>\n<p>You see, most homeowners don\u2019t think about hiring a heating and air contractor when their system is working. They don\u2019t even think about heating or air until their system breaks down and, with a loud kerchunk, the toast pops up.<\/p>\n<p>If we send our mailing out in April we have to hope it arrives just as someone\u2019s heating or air conditioning system fails. We also have to hope they become very uncomfortable very quickly. Because if they don\u2019t have any issues until July they\u2019ll never remember we offered jam when there was no toast.<\/p>\n<p>That tiny morsel of April sweetness was effectively gone before anyone bit into it.<\/p>\n<h2>The Solution? Less Toast<\/h2>\n<p>5,002 postcards, one sent to every home within a mile of our business, will leave enough budget to print and send 144,998 more cards.<\/p>\n<p>What do we do with them? Simple. We send them to the same 5,002 homes a couple of weeks later.<\/p>\n<p>And again ten days or so after that.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, our budget will permit us to reach those homes 30 times over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n<h2>Why only 5,002 Homes?<\/h2>\n<p>Those other households are simply too far away for cost-effective reach.<\/p>\n<p>We could try to reach 146,585 households once each. Mathematically, in a single contact, we\u2019re likely to convince them only 3 percent of the way to picking up the phone and calling for help.<\/p>\n<p>But with 30 ongoing reminders we could instead reach 5,002 homes 100 percent of the way to becoming customers. (And when I show you how to get the Postal Service to deliver those cards for as little as 18 cents each? Oh, my. Life does get sweet!)<\/p>\n<p>When you understand how to send your marketing dollars out into the world, and have them bring several friends when they come back home, you get to decide your own growth rate.<\/p>\n<p>How high do you want your company to fly?  How fast do you choose to get there?<\/p>\n<h2>Assume the Variables<\/h2>\n<p>It will become obvious that building a brand that customers think of when they need what you sell requires a different strategy than asking for that sale right now.<\/p>\n<p>You need to budget differently to build that brand, too.  And regardless of which strategy you choose, you&#8217;ll need to \u201cright size\u201d your company\u2019s marketing budget so that every dollar contributes to maximum impact.<\/p>\n<p>Can you afford anything less when you&#8217;re fishing for customers?<\/p>\n<p>Your Guide,<br \/>\n<em>Chuck McKay<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ChuckHat-150x150.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3922\" src=\"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ChuckHat-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ChuckHat-150x150.jpg 200w, https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ChuckHat-150x150-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a>Your Fishing for Customers guide, Chuck McKay, gets people to buy more of what you sell.<\/p>\n<p>Wondering how often to make an offer to a potential customer? Drop Chuck a note at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:chuckmckay@chuckmckayonline.com\">ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com<\/a>. Or call him at 307-207-0028.<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column]<br \/>\n\t\t\t[\/et_pb_row]<br \/>\n\t\t[\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It Wasn\u2019t Really a Question What my new acquaintance actually said was, \u201cI know it takes money to make money, but promoting my business doesn\u2019t feel like investing, and I can\u2019t afford too many more bad rolls of the dice.\u201d The implied question was, \u201cWhat should I spend on marketing?\u201d What Does it Cost to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"<h2>It Wasn\u2019t Really a Question<\/h2>\r\nWhat my new acquaintance actually said was, \u201cI know it takes money to make money, but promoting my business doesn\u2019t feel like investing, and I can\u2019t afford too many more bad rolls of the dice.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe implied question was, \u201cWhat should I spend on marketing?\u201d\r\n<h2>What Does it Cost to Acquire a Customer?<\/h2>\r\nThe concept is simple, but the answer isn\u2019t, mainly because it costs less to attract shoppers who are physically close to your business than those farther away.\r\n\r\nThe easiest way to explain this may be with jam, and toast.\r\n<h2>Pretend Your Marketing Budget is One Tablespoon of Strawberry Jam<\/h2>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/toast-and-jam.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3841\" src=\"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/toast-and-jam-300x251.jpg\" alt=\"toast and jam\" width=\"300\" height=\"251\" \/><\/a>Spread over half a slice it covers the bread with a thick, generous coating of strawberry goodness that\u2019s evident with every bite.\r\n\r\nOn Two Slices of Toast it Starts Getting Thin\r\n\r\nAnd if you wanted to spread our delicious strawberry jam over seven and a half slices of toast, well, the result will be disappointing every time.\r\n\r\nThere\u2019s just not enough jam for a satisfying coverage of that much toast.\r\n<h2>Strawberry Jam in the Real World<\/h2>\r\nWhether you\u2019re an esthetician, an attorney, or run a smoke shop; whether you weave custom rugs, or fit custom toupees, the concept works exactly the same way as jam on toast.\r\n\r\nToday, let\u2019s consider an HVAC (heating and air) contractor in Rancho Cucamonga, California.\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Half a slice of toast in this case would equal all of the homes within half a mile of the shop \u2013 2,132 households.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>One slice (one mile) includes 5,002 homes.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>At a two mile radius from the shop that number of households jumps to 20,268.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>At five miles the number of households has grown to 74,804.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>And within a 7.5 mile radius the household total has reached 146,585.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<h2>How Do We Reach All Those Homes?<\/h2>\r\nWe\u2019re going to rely on one of the oldest forms of traditional media: direct mail. We\u2019ll send a postcard to all of the homes around our shop promising heat when it\u2019s cold, cool when it\u2019s hot, and lightning fast emergency service.\r\n<h2>What\u2019s Our Budget?<\/h2>\r\nFor illustration, let\u2019s say our tablespoon of jam would let us deliver postcards to 150,000 homes.\r\n\r\nHey, that\u2019s great news! Everyone gets a postcard\u2026\r\n<h2>\u2026But No One Gets a Real Taste<\/h2>\r\nOne tablespoon of jam spread across seven and a half slices of toast doesn\u2019t provide any flavor. Worse yet, the jam arrived before the bread finished toasting.\r\n\r\nYou see, most homeowners don\u2019t think about hiring a heating and air contractor when their system is working. They don\u2019t even think about heating or air until their system breaks down and, with a loud kerchunk, the toast pops up.\r\n\r\nIf we send our mailing out in April we have to hope it arrives just as someone\u2019s heating or air conditioning system fails. We also have to hope they become very uncomfortable very quickly. Because if they don\u2019t have any issues until July they\u2019ll never remember we offered jam when there was no toast.\r\n\r\nThat tiny morsel of April sweetness was effectively gone before anyone bit into it.\r\n<h2>The Solution? Less Toast<\/h2>\r\n5,002 postcards, one sent to every home within a mile of our business, will leave enough budget to print and send 144,998 more cards.\r\n\r\nWhat do we do with them? Simple. We send them to the same 5,002 homes a couple of weeks later.\r\n\r\nAnd again ten days or so after that.\r\n\r\nIn fact, our budget will permit us to reach those homes 30 times over the next 12 months.\r\n<h2>Why only 5,002 Homes?<\/h2>\r\nThose other households are simply too far away for cost-effective reach.\r\n\r\nWe could try to reach 146,585 households once each. Mathematically, in a single contact, we\u2019re likely to convince them only 3 percent of the way to picking up the phone and calling for help.\r\n\r\nBut with 30 ongoing reminders we could instead reach 5,002 homes 100 percent of the way to becoming customers. (And when I show you how to get the Postal Service to deliver those cards for as little as 18 cents each? Oh, my. Life does get sweet!)\r\n\r\nWhen you understand how to send your marketing dollars out into the world, and have them bring several friends when they come back home, you get to decide your own growth rate.\r\n\r\nHow high do you want your company to fly?  How fast do you choose to get there?\r\n<h2>Assume the Variables<\/h2>\r\n\r\nIt will become obvious that building a brand that customers think of when they need what you sell requires a different strategy than asking for that sale right now.\r\n\r\nYou need to budget differently to build that brand, too.  And regardless of which strategy you choose, you'll need to \u201cright size\u201d your company\u2019s marketing budget so that every dollar contributes to maximum impact.\r\n\r\nCan you afford anything less when you're fishing for customers?\r\n\r\nYour Guide,\r\n<em>Chuck McKay<\/em>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ChuckHat-150x150.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3922\" src=\"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ChuckHat-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a>Your Fishing for Customers guide, Chuck McKay, gets people to buy more of what you sell.\r\n\r\nWondering how often to make an offer to a potential customer? Drop Chuck a note at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:chuckmckay@chuckmckayonline.com\">ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com<\/a>. Or call him at 307-207-0028.\r\n\r\n","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3829"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21191,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions\/21191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}